Speaking this week with host Kennedy at Fox Business, US House Member Thomas Massie (R-KY) insisted that Donald Trump’s performance as president should be judged according to whether Trump adheres to the nonaggression principle that Massie describes as “the heart of libertarian principles.” Massie proceeded in the interview to define briefly the nonaggression principle as that “you don’t attack somebody if they don’t attack you.”

Massie volunteered that the thing he is most optimistic about with Trump having won the presidency “is we’re not going to war with Russia.” Massie continued that such a war may have been in the future if Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had won the election. Further, Massie expressed optimism regarding some of Trump’s Cabinet choices, saying, “I wouldn’t call any of them libertarian yet, but, on the spectrum of smaller government or bigger government, I personally know some of them and they’re definitely small-government-type people.”

The tweeted image claimed to have been “declassified,” and was hyped as proving Israel’s massive intelligence-gathering capabilities in southern Lebanon, in anticipation of Israel’s next invasion. Officials also say it was presented to foreign diplomats as proof Hezbollah poses a threat to Israeli territory.

As head of the US Southern Command, Gen. John Kelly was in charge of the US military involvement in the drug war in Central and South America. He blames the liberalization of marijuana in some US states for the ongoing failure of the drug war, even though the drug war has drug on for decades and marijuana decriminalization is a very recent phenomenon. Will the general take his military approach to the drug war to his domestic position as the next Secretary of Homeland Security? We look at the general and his views in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

NATO’s desperate search for a purpose after the fall of the Soviet Union has left a swath of destruction through places like Libya, which it “liberated” nearly six years ago. Now NATO wants to take in tiny Montenegro, a corrupt, poor, Balkan statelet with a total of 2,000 troops. The reason? To further provoke Russia and to open the door to more NATO expansion perhaps to Georgia, Moldova, and even Ukraine. This week the US Senate will vote on Montenegro’s NATO membership. Will president-elect Trump ask them to hold off on this ill-advised move? We discuss in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

The problems many are now predicting under the Trump administration did not start on November 8. The near-unrestrained executive power claimed by the Obama administration will be transferred to the president-elect. Here’s what that means.

Torture

Obama did not prosecute, fire or discipline anyone for torturing people on behalf of the people of the United States. He did not hold any truth commissions, and ensured almost all of the government documents on the torture program remain classified. He did not prosecute the CIA official who willfully destroyed video tapes of the torture scenes. He has not specifically disavowed secret prisons and renditions, just suspended their use.

As with the continued hunting down of Nazis some 70 years after their evil acts, the message that individual responsibility exists must stalk those who would do evil on behalf of a government. “I was only following orders” is not a defense against inhuman acts. The purpose of tracking down the guilty is less to punish and more to discourage the next person from doing evil; the purpose is to morally immunize a nation-state.

Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis will make his way from the board of directors of major defense contractor General Dynamics back to the Pentagon as Defense Secretary under incoming president Donald Trump. Like his predecessor, current Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, Mattis comes by way of the military-industrial complex. Unlike Carter he was a four star general in the US Marine Corps. Asked about the three biggest threats to the US, Gen. Mattis responded, “Iran, Iran, Iran.” He is convinced that Iran and ISIS are in league together, a position not borne out by facts. Should we be concerned over a “mad dog” in charge of the Pentagon? More in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report: